[s-cars] S4 Avant

[JC]

Agreed its more than just a few thousand, however per the FAQ page Cody 
posted, which details every part required....

"Based on the list prices above the Total Cost of a complete overhaul 
for*PARTS ONLY*(No Tools) will be:
A. Slightly above*$3,000*with the Cam Adjusters
B. Right around*$2,000*without the Cam Adjusters"

Add the clutch to THIS and you're more in the $3500-4500 total range on 
parts (I think the $4500 motor-parts-only number that gets thrown out 
there is from this math... that or from overpricing dealers...) Note if 
you need this service, you may not need everything so it doesn't have to 
be the full boat.... but yeah I know "if you are pulling the motor do it 
all when you are there just in case..."

I looked very hard at these cars for a long time.

Statistically very very few of these actually fail catastrophically and 
Audi shop techs who do these jobs will tell you this.   The vast 
majority start to break down and car runs like crap and throws codes to 
indicate it needs the service - all will need eventually we can presume. 
Yeah for the one or two guys who had the catastrophic failure it sucks 
and you'll hear them screaming about how it happens to everybody and 
it's a miserable fatal engine design and every single one is just 
waiting to self-destruct at any minute.   But talk to techs who work on 
these all the time and it seems that is the way rare exception - codes 
and poor running and limp mode come up first almost every time.

My end conclusions on these were after lots of research and talking to 
owners and techs...:
- On one hand the frequency and catastrophic nature is a bit overblown 
by the internet chicken littles, or, the poor guys who lost the lottery 
(like any car where some guy has his engine blow because he got the 1 
crappy one in 10,000).
- And likewise, pulling the motor on these cars isn't as massive a task 
as it gets made out to be - it does come straight out the front without 
too much drama - I've seen it.  Indy-laboring the job can be done for 
more like $1500-2000...
- But still all things considered, the price of one should reflect 
increasing chances of a need for a $3000-$7000 service as it is 
approaching and exceeding 100k.
- And seldom do they sell with that kind of discount, so my conclusion 
has been to stay away.  If I did buy one, finding one that had been 
serviced already would likely be the other route to go and assume you 
have a fresh 100k to go on the car until you're worried again

JC

On 5/5/2013 9:24, docwyte at comcast.net wrote:
> Not sure if you saw my earlier post, but the timing chain job is FAR more expensive than just a few thousand dollars. (just, ha!)
>
> The parts cost for the timing chain job are $4500. Assuming the car is still on its factory clutch, add in another $1500 for a new clutch/flywheel. The B6 S4's have a problematic dual mass flywheel that should be replaced.
>
> So that's $6000 in parts cost, then the motor/tranny needs to be dropped to do the job, figure shop labor of $2500-3000.
>
> Total cost, $8500+ dollars.
>
> There's NO warning if the timing chain guide/tensioner decides to let loose. You can't go by the cold start rattle as they all do that. Some are clearly worse than others, but that's not a good indication.
>
> People have had these fail at 80k miles and Forum wisdom is saying it's a 100k mile maintenance item.
>
> See why I sold mine?
>
> I'd really look into another car, maybe a 2002 S6 avant? Those have a true timing belt on the front of the motor, much easier/cheaper to replace.
>
> Josh
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*John J. Cunningham*
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